Lambert in or out? Poll reset with majority 'in', 7th May

[PaulWinch again]

I'm just not sure what good it does us to say that, it may be true but it's just not great to hear.

[LeeB]

I'm grateful that the one person not moaning about our financial situation is the manager.

[john e]

how many big earners say 50k a week and above have we got on the books

Given
Dunne
Ireland
Bent
N'zog
not to mention the ones we have managed to move on or not renewed over the last 18 months,

and thats your problem, high earners either not playing or not playing well enough to justify the high salary, Randy has just looked at it and said, no i'm not doing that again, at least untill its under control

i agree i think there could have been a modest spend in the window for a defender, i cant explain that,
 but the idea that you can spend you way out of trouble is flawed, its the same spending mentality thats got us here in the first place

[eastie]

Sounds to me like he is undermining his boss.
I think there are some dangerous games going on a Villa Park, at all levels.

aye, especially if the rumours are true that the club were as flabbergasted by his signings as we were.

Spot on gnasher.

[eastie]

We are not saying spend £20m plus to compete with newcastle and stoke - but at least try to compete with wigan and reading for fucks sake- the lack of a defender in this window was ridiculous.

[LeeB]

how many big earners say 50k a week and above have we got on the books

Given
Dunne
Ireland
Bent
N'zog
not to mention the ones we have managed to move on or not renewed over the last 18 months,

and thats your problem, high earners either not playing or not playing well enough to justify the high salary, Randy has just looked at it and said, no i'm not doing that again, at least untill its under control

i agree i think there could have been a modest spend in the window for a defender, i cant explain that,
 but the idea that you can spend you way out of trouble is flawed, its the same spending mentality thats got us here in the first place

The definition of insanity is to keep repeating your mistakes.

[tomd2103]

how many big earners say 50k a week and above have we got on the books

Given
Dunne
Ireland
Bent
N'zog
not to mention the ones we have managed to move on or not renewed over the last 18 months,

and thats your problem, high earners either not playing or not playing well enough to justify the high salary, Randy has just looked at it and said, no i'm not doing that again, at least untill its under control

i agree i think there could have been a modest spend in the window for a defender, i cant explain that,
 but the idea that you can spend you way out of trouble is flawed, its the same spending mentality thats got us here in the first place

I understand the point you are making John, but disagree about the assertion that you can't spend your way of trouble.  The spine of our team (central defence and central midfield) has been weak for a number of seasons now and I have no doubt that had some major investment gone into bringing in quality players in those areas then we would probably not be in the position we are in now.  Spend money on quality players in those areas and then build a team around them.   

I do agree that buying players for the sake of it and paying big money for mediocre players is not the way to go though.     

[brian green]

That pretty much sums it up for me "some dangerous games being played at Villa Park".

I keep coming back to the gut feeling that stupid things are being done on purpose.

If that is true it can only be motivated by one of three things - malice, crass stupidity verging on mental aberration or corruption.

Which is it?   Take your pick.   To help you decide here are one or two things which I think stink to high heaven.

The creation of a situation of needless confrontation and mutual hostility with players like Bent, Hutton, Warnock, Dunne, Collins and Given.

The complete absence of any explanation of what has happened and what is happening about Jean II Makoun's work permit.   If his ineligibility to turn out for us is due to lack of administrative foresight or planning, the person who let it happen should be sacked.

The complete absence of any explanation of what exactly the circumstances were of Richard Dunne returning from the Euros so seriously injured that we have lost him for a whole season.   Are there grounds for an insurance claim?   If not why not?

The chasing of the game against Chelsea, going gung-ho at four nil down and not limiting the damage of a game which will go down in history as the one which made all our four wheels fall off.

Letting the Chelsea massacre innocents take the field against Spurs on Boxing Day clearly shell shocked with no known or visible attempt made to help a young and inexperienced squad come to terms with the biggest defeat of our 138 year history.

The absolutely glaring incompetence of our coaching staff to staunch the flow of goals against us from corners and set pieces.   It has nothing at all to do with football ability.   It is like teaching soldiers to march or dolphins to juggle beach balls.   You do it over and over and over until you get it right.

Constantly making calamitous substitutions always at the 70 minute mark.   If Ireland starts and is clearly away with the fairies, don't leave him on for seventy minutes.   Likewise if Bannan is being swatted away by their midfield like an irksome gnat, don't leave it until the 70th minute put a sub on with instructions to bite back.   It is all so elementary.

In the transfer window which could have and should have saved our Premiership status, one of the only two players we brought in was a 25 year old Tottenham reject who plays in a position where we have adequate (superior quality) cover, ON LOAN so that we know before the player ever kicks a ball he will either be a Jenas and never strike a blow in anger for us or a Kyle Naughton and be straight back to Tottenham if he shows any kind of ability in a Villa shirt.

I could go on and I am sure there are those of you with a better memory than mine who can add to the list of inexplicable bollocks we have dropped this season alone.

You decide.   Is it malice, is it crass stupidity of the worst kind or is it George Graham style brown paper bags?

[Merv]

I'm grateful that the one person not moaning about our financial situation is the manager.

Well yes. We have this v strange situation where the manager has repeatedly said he has limited funds, missed out on plyrs because of this and yet there are theories that he passed up a load of cash. Just don't see it. Why would he do that if money was available?

[john e]

We are not saying spend £20m plus to compete with newcastle and stoke - but at least try to compete with wigan and reading for fucks sake- the lack of a defender in this window was ridiculous.

we spent 20 mill plus in the last window, i think you will find over the last few years we have been one of the top spnders in the whole of the league, look where its got us, in the shit

the likes of Wigan and Reading who you are using as examples of higher spenders than ourselves have never spent 20 mill on a player, never,
 i havent done it but i would sugest that our spending over the last 3 years would dwarf there two clubs put together,
it hasnt worked for us, so Randy in his wisdom or otherwise wants to go a different way

i would have loved to see a defender coming in even on the cheap, but it still wouldnt guarantee anything,
 QPR , Wigan, Reading and Newcastle will not all stay up, even after spending more than us

[Chris Smith]

We are not saying spend £20m plus to compete with newcastle and stoke - but at least try to compete with wigan and reading for fucks sake- the lack of a defender in this window was ridiculous.

“We tried to do a few deals for a defender but the salaries were way too high."

[eastie]

We are not saying spend £20m plus to compete with newcastle and stoke - but at least try to compete with wigan and reading for fucks sake- the lack of a defender in this window was ridiculous.

“We tried to do a few deals for a defender but the salaries were way too high."

Warnock has gone thats his salary off the  books, the extra few grand in salary will be peanuts in comparison with the tens of millions lost in tv rights if relegated.

Dawkins was not a priority, a defender was .

[VillaAlways]

A loan? A defender from the Championship Scott Dann maybe? You just get the impression they barely even tried to plug the gaps Zero urgency

[tomd2103]

We are not saying spend £20m plus to compete with newcastle and stoke - but at least try to compete with wigan and reading for fucks sake- the lack of a defender in this window was ridiculous.

we spent 20 mill plus in the last window, i think you will find over the last few years we have been one of the top spnders in the whole of the league, look where its got us, in the shit

the likes of Wigan and Reading who you are using as examples of higher spenders than ourselves have never spent 20 mill on a player, never,
 i havent done it but i would sugest that our spending over the last 3 years would dwarf there two clubs put together,
it hasnt worked for us, so Randy in his wisdom or otherwise wants to go a different way
i would have loved to see a defender coming in even on the cheap, but it still wouldnt guarantee anything,
 QPR , Wigan, Reading and Newcastle will not all stay up, even after spending more than us

It hasn't worked out because up until this season, we only really did business in the ridiculously over priced British market.  The apparent failure to set up anything approaching a decent foreign scouting network (add that to the catalogue of thing Lerner and Faulkner have failed to deliver) has meant we have been missing out for a number of years on quality foreign imports that could have been purchased for relatively cheap amounts .       

[eastie]

A loan? A defender from the Championship Scott Dann maybe? You just get the impression they barely even tried to plug the gaps Zero urgency

Yep, so we can miss out on the sissokos but we cant afford to loan scott dann or matt upson ?
We know lescotts wages are not viable but in a month i do not believe he could not find any defender to improve the squad .

The budget he had was not spent and i want to know why not - i have implored kendrick and nursey to ask the question .